A Great 2014 Sustainable Overlook Garden Tour!

Wow! First it didn’t rain (hardy at all), then we had fantastic people come out for a day of meeting neighbors, sharing natural gardening practices, seeing cool plants and garden designs – so many great conversations! Here are some reactions from neighbors:

The Sustainable Garden tour today was so inspiring! I had no idea all the cool things that were going on in my neighborhood! Thanks to all the people who opened their houses and to the organizers! Great success!
— Emily via fb

This was great, thank you for posting. I got to go for a lovely pregnant walk and take pics of plants that may work in our new yard.
– Chandra via Nextdoor

Besides sitting at another family’s beautiful, natural garden, I got to meet several neighbors new to me and just a few streets over. It was a great day with even some excitement: would it rain, or wouldn’t it?! Thank you, Mulysa, for doing such an excellent job of organizing, and thank you, Sustainable Overlook, for sponsoring the tour.
– Jane via Nextdoor

Thank you for helping put on the garden tour. So much fun!
– Rachel via email

What a fantastically organized tour; Mulysa & crew, you outdid yourselves!
– Michelle via email

We went to all the homes on the garden tour today and we thought it was awesome! We are really inspired and it was great to get out and meet some of our neighbors…
Thanks for all you guys do to make this the best neighborhood for my family.

–Lisa via email

Sustainable Overlook Garden Tour – June 28th

The 3rd annual garden tour is just around the corner, on Saturday June 28th from 10 am to 3 pm. There is a fantastic line-up of 10 pesticide-free gardens to explore. New this year will be partner organizations and businesses with tables at every tour stop! Check out the tour day details and garden profiles on the Garden Tour page.

Profiles of the gardens are posted here.

The tour map will be available at two gardens:
Garden No.1: 5929 N. Curtis
Garden No.10: 3908 N. Concord Ave.
Start at either to sign in, donate ($5 suggested) and get your map.

The tour is bike friendly! Thanks to Good Sport Promotion. we’ll have extra bike parking at Gardens No. 1, 4 and 10.

Organizations:

Growing Gardens

Oregon Right to Know – Campaign to Label GMOs

East Multnomah County Soil and Water Conservation District

Backyard Habitat Certification Program

Metro Natural Gardening information

Friends of Overlook Bluff

Slow Food PDX

Bee Friendly Portland

The Xerces Society

 

Businesses:

EcoRoofs Everywhere

Jan-Marc Wine Cellars

Sea and Sage Farms (Drinking vinegar)

Landscapers from the Backyard Habitat Certification Program’s Landscaper Directory including Habitat Landscape Design, Resilience Design, Rain City Gardens and Independence Gardens.

Bosky Dell Natives

 

The Historic Elliot House

The Historic Elliot House

 

Oregon Right to Know – Label GMOs!

The campaign to label GMOs in Oregon is underway. The effort is about “empowering people and getting the information that we deserve in order to make our own choices for what we eat and feed our families; it’s our right to know.” What’s at stake? GM salmon that could threaten our wild salmon populations and our health are about to be approved by the FDA, freaky apples that don’t brown when cut are in the pipeline and other products that consumers may not want but can’t make an informed choice to avoid if they are not labeled.

Many of us are making an effort to grow more of our own food, buy organic and non-GMO verified products but the truth is that the majority of food in most grocery stores already contains GM ingredients but are unlabeled. Even if we are concerned about the health consequences and we managed to avoid most GM food, the environmental impacts of GM crops (such as massive amounts of pesticide including herbicide use) are currently multiplying rapidly and are decimating our pollinators and polluting our water, creating resistant ‘Super Weeds’ and contaminating our seed banks – our heritage. Labeling will help us make informed choices about whether to support these practices.

“It’s no surprise Oregon is on the verge of being the first state to win labeling of genetically engineered foods by a vote of the people. We care about how and where our food is grown, we support family farmers and sustainable farming practices and we know that labeling is the only way we as consumers can truly know what we are eating and feeding our families.”

Huge corporations are spending millions of dollars to fight this effort – your signature is needed to put labeling on the ballot!

Sign the petition to let the people of Oregon vote on GMO labeling on the November ballots.

Go to www.oregonrighttoknow.org

or

Sign the petition on the Sustainable Overlook Garden Tour (Tour Stop 1) on June 28th, from 10 am to 3 pm.

Post by Mulysa Melco. Quotes from Oregon GMO Right to Know campaign.

Sustainable Overlook June Meeting

Join us Thursday, June 12th from 6:30-8:30 pm
5523 N. Detroit Ave. near N. Killingsworth

What would you tell someone moving to Portland about how we can live sustainably here? What are the values and ethos that make Portland unique and can make it a better place to live? Bring your ideas for a “Portland Manifesto”. For inspiration, check out this article on the Manifesto for Planetary Health . Rob Hopkins (founder of the Transition Movement) writes “One of the most fascinating things I read recently was The Lancet’s Manifesto for Planetary Health… For one of the most august and respected medical journals to argue that “the idea of unconstrained progress is a dangerous human illusion”, to call for “a new vision of cooperative and democratic action at all levels of society” and to state that “our patterns of overconsumption are unsustainable and will ultimately cause the collapse of our civilisation” is remarkable, and timely.”

Also on the agenda:
1) Drinking homebrew Kombucha or BYOB
2) Checking in on upcoming event planning: Sunday Parkways, Yard Sale/Free Share and the Sustainable Overlook Garden Tour
3) Sharing your ideas for the neighborhood!